Job overview Surrey Downs Health & Care We are currently recruiting for a part time Specialist Diabetes Psychologist which has become available within our Community Diabetes Team in Surrey Downs. This is an exciting opportunity for a Diabetes Psychologist working jointly within our friendly multi disciplinary team of Consultants, Nurses, Dieticians and Podiatrists to offer specialist advice and input appropriate for a diverse range of complex and challenging problems including high levels of distress and risk, interpersonal difficulties and mental health problems for patients across Surrey Downs Health and Care. Advert To be responsible for the provision of a high-quality Clinical Psychology Service to the Diabetes Service, within Surrey Downs community team aimed at reducing emotional distress and disability and promoting wellbeing, adherence to treatment and treatment outcomes in adults with diabetes. This will include providing highly specialist psychological assessment and therapy, offering advice and consultation on psychological aspects of diabetes to other health professionals and supporting clinical team members who provide psychosocial care. The postholder will be responsible for the delivery of the Clinical Psychology Service within the diabetes team and as such work autonomously, within recognised professional guidelines. The post holder will be expected to utilise their knowledge of evidence based psychological interventions and research skills to implement audit, research and service development projects. The postholder will also be involved in the training and continuing professional development of clinical psychologists and other health professionals. Working for our organisation Surrey Downs Health and Care deliver care closer to people’s own communities through our Primary Care Networks, Community Hospitals, Specialist Services and our innovative partnership of local NHS organisations. Surrey Downs Health and Care has a track record of providing person centered care that goes beyond organisational boundaries to do what is best for the individual. This partnership includes: The three GP federations GP Health Partners, Dorking Health Care and Surrey Medical Network representing practices that operate in the Surrey Downs area Epsom and St Helier’s University Hospitals NHS Trust Surrey Council County Historically, there have been boundary lines between the organisations that provide care to people in their homes, in GP surgeries and in hospitals, but we have always been united in our mission to provide great care to the people who need us. It’s on those grounds that the Surrey Downs Health and Care was formed – we want local people to receive the care that they need in the right environment. By bringing together our expertise, we can improve patient care and enable local people to access the right support, care and treatment more easily than ever before. In bringing this partnership together, we are working to the same set of values that will translate into better care for our residents. Detailed job description and main responsibilities Clinical 1. To be responsible for providing a comprehensive, specialist assessment service for patients referred by Diabetes team members. This input will be based on the appropriate use, interpretation and integration of complex data from a variety of sources including psychological tests, self-report measures, rating scales and semi-structured interviews with clients, family members and others involved in the client's care. 2. To identify the nature, severity and complexity of the client's problems and to communicate this information in a skilled and sensitive manner to client, referrer and other health professionals involved in the client's care 3. To evaluate and make decisions about treatment options, considering a range of theoretical and therapeutic models and highly complex factors concerning historical and developmental processes and medical factors that have shaped the individual, family or group. Decision making will also consider knowledge about the provision of and involve liaising with other local specialist services. 4. To advise clients, family members and others involved in the client's care on the appropriate management of difficulties and arrange referral to other services if needed. 5. Implement a range of psychological interventions with individuals, couples and families, continually adjusting and refining psychological formulations drawing on different explanatory models and maintaining a number of provision hypotheses and employing methods based upon evidence of treatment efficacy. 6. To exercise autonomous professional responsibility for the efficiency of all aspects of the Clinical Psychology Service within the Surrey Down’s team including assessment, treatment and discharge of patients. 7. Where patients present with multiple needs e.g. patients with severe mental health problems and persistent pain, to liaise with other local specialist services eg mental health services to enable effective case management, and to offer specialist advice, consultation and guidance to other health professionals concerning the management of such cases. 8. To develop educational materials for use with the Diabetes team to inform clients on psychological aspects of diabetes. 9. To provide expertise, advice and support to facilitate the effective and appropriate provision of psychological care by all members of the team. 10. To ensure that all members of the team at the Diabetes Centre have access to a framework for understanding the range of psychosocial difficulties that clients present with through the dissemination of psychological research and theory. 11. To undertake risk assessment with clients and provide advice to other health professionals on psychological aspects of risk assessment and risk management General 1. To ensure the highest standards of clinical record keeping including electronic data entry and recording, report writing and the responsible exercise of professional self-governance in accordance with professional codes of practice of the British Psychological Society, HCPC and Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals Trust. 2. To maintain up to date knowledge of developments in the speciality of diabetes and Clinical Health Psychology and national and local policies related to the delivery of diabetes and Clinical Health Psychology Services 3. To ensure the development and the maintenance of the highest professional standards of practice, through active participation in continuing professional development in consultation with the post holder's professional and service managers. 4. To be responsible for the development and articulation of best practices in psychology within the Diabetes Service, by exercising the skills of a reflexive and reflective scientist practitioner, taking part in regular professional supervision and appraisal and maintaining an active engagement with current developments in the field of clinical psychology and related disciplines. 5. To contribute to work to raise awareness of good psychological practice in the care of medical patients within the Trust and, in conjunction with the Trust professional Lead for Clinical Psychology, to advise on further service developments in line with these principles where appropriate. 6. Through active participation in professional special interest groups, contribute to work to develop the profession of Clinical Health Psychology and its contribution to the effective care of medical patients. Organisational 1. To work towards achieving the objectives and goals of Surrey Downs Health and Care. 2. Assist in the development, evaluation and monitoring of operational policies and procedures for the Clinical Psychology Service to Diabetes Services. 3. To advise both service and professional management on those aspects of the service where psychological and / or organisational matters need addressing 4. To regularly liaise with the service manager in order to ensure that the service runs effectively, safely and efficiently 5. To contribute to the development, evaluation and monitoring of the service provided at the Diabetes centre as a whole through deployment of professional skills in research, service evaluation, audit and team organisation 6. To contribute where appropriate to the development of psychological aspects of care of people with diabetes at a local, regional and national level through involvement in teaching, training and service review. Please refer to the Job Description and Person Specification for more details. Your application : Please ensure that you have read the job description and person specification and that your supporting statement reflects these, as your application will be assessed and scored against these criteria. References : You will be required to provide 3 years of employment/educational history. We do not accept references from personal email addresses such as Hotmail, Gmail etc. therefore please ensure you are providing professional working email addresses within your application form. If you are unable to provide professional email addresses and are invited to an interview, please ensure you advise the interviewers of this - otherwise, this may delay your pre-employment checks. Closing date : In order to streamline recruitment within our Trust, we reserve the right to expire vacancies prior to the advertised closing date once we have received a sufficient number of applications. Shortlisting : You will only be contacted via e-mail/SMS if you are successfully shortlisted for this post. Please ensure that you check your Trac registered e-mail regularly. DBS : We are committed to safeguarding children and adults who are at risk of abuse. As such, if this post will have access to children or vulnerable adults, you will be required to undertake an Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service check. However, all employees have a responsibility for safeguarding children and vulnerable adults in the course of their duties and for ensuring that they are aware of the specific duties relating to their role.